Hospital and Care Clowning - Making a Connection for Healing and Wellness

Bungle and Ruby-Dooby drop into a resident`s room at Beacon Hill Villa for a visit

Bungle gets a laugh from one of the residents

Care Clowning is when we visit living facilities, such as complex care, extended care, or assisted living centres. On these visits, the clowns come not just to entertain, but to amuse, to stimulate, and to bring smiles to residents. Many are suffering from chronic illnesses or dementia, and they enjoy the lift they receive when the clowns arrive. Clowns are interesting and fun with their odd games and activities which engage and involve the residents in activity. Our philosophy for Care Clowning is taken from the Canadian Association of Therapeutic Clowns:

"With their focus on the imaginative and the creative, therapeutic clowns offer new opportunities for play and laughter, for self-expression and self-acceptance, for mastery and empowerment, and for moments of tenderness and comfort. We believe that these interactions have an impact on everyone's experiences and perceptions, and thus help to humanize the health care setting.

We honour and respect those we serve (patient, resident, family and staff), and offer ourselves as resources they may freely choose to access. We believe that we are co-creators with them, and that the joy, creativity, tenderness, and wealth of benefits arising from our exchanges are a collective creation of all involved. As therapeutic clowns, we see our role as being supportive and inspirational in nature, facilitating and encouraging emotional well-being. The patient, resident, family or staff member is the one whose imagination and creativity we wish to foster, celebrate and set free." (from the CATC/ACCT Statement of Principles)

Stretch peeking into a room at Beacon Hill Villa

﻿Staff have reported that after a clown visit it feels as if "the whole place has been lifted". But see for yourself... The following pictures were taken 10 minutes after the clowns had left the floor (please click on pictures to enlarge).﻿

Not only do we visit with the residents, we also include family members and staff to honor their commitment, dedication and love.

Currently, we visit residents at the Beacon Hill Villa in Victoria, BC and Rest Haven Lodge and Sidney All Care Residence in Sidney, BC. Our visits are greatly helped by the amazing and supportive staff of these facilities. We always visit in pairs of two clowns, plus one non-clown handler.

As part of our care clown training the new clowns will be accompanied by one of the senior clowns during their first year. The following pictures show Cahoots during her first visit together with her clown partner Stretch.

Our plans include adding more such settings to our visitation list in the near future. Please, contact us if you are interested in bringing The Sunshine Clowns into your facility!

The slide show below is from previous care clown visits to Beacon Hill Villa. Featured is the "clowning" of Linda Hanford, former Executive Director of Beacon Hill Villa. Other photos are typical clown visits to rooms and in common areas. Shown here are Goldie Ray, Ruby-Dooby, Bungle and Stretch.